the School District, all social service agencies, Health Department and the Peoria Police and I don't presume to begin to understand what it takes to manage a city, however, the recent murder of Monterrious Dillard, which was followed up by the retaliatory shooting at Taft Homes appears to be just one more glaring example of entire families spiraling out of control here in Peoria. Another glaring example, was the murder of the Billups child who was shot in his head, during a drive by, while he was sleeping. Much of the crime that we are seeing in the streets and in the school is not only gang related - it is familial.
We may be witnessing instances of not just the children being violent, but so is the mother, the father and the extended family. Local pastors are starting to be concerned about having funeral services in their church, because the probability of violence during the services.
The streets of inner city Peoria continue to be in chaos, yet all our city leaders can focus on is the facade. It appears that some people in this town hate black boys so much, that if they ever got a chance to put their hands on them, they could beat the life out of them. While families mourn their dead children, some are rejoicing as black boys are gunned down in the streets, as evidenced by this quote from a local blog:
"These stories always put a smile on my face. That's one more piece of **** now off the street. Bring on the families airbrushed RIP t-shirts paid for the link card's cash assistance -- funded by paycheck. Have you ever noticed while driving around Peoria and you see Cornelius or Demetrius or Tai-Shawwn or Little Ray-Ray walking down the road and he's turning his head with his eyes glued on you as you approach and drive past him? These ghetto ****s are so paranoid that they give "watch your back" it's literal meaning."
As the chaos in the streets continue, we can certainly expect the children who live in the inner city and matriculate in inner city schools to continue to show signs of being traumatized. We can expect that they will be acting out, as evidenced by the calls to the Peoria Police by District 150 Schools on Monday. During the time that I was listening, I heard five calls.
It's past time for an emergency meeting, Mr. City Manager, a meeting about the quality of life of the children who reside in this community. It's a quality of life that cannot be improved by a Peoria Promise, museums, a hotel, a new Zoo, or one experimental charter school.
Our inner city is in crisis, yet the only people who appear to be outraged enough to do anything about it are those that are filled with disdain for the very children who are caught in Peoria's vicious cycle of poverty.
As a home owner in the inner City of Peoria who is feeling over taxed; as a black mother with hard working children; as an African American mother who blogs about failing schools and the dying inner city, I see you Mr. City Manager...
I see you managing to find a way to turn garbage into streets, now let me see you clean up those very same crime riddled streets. I think we can agree, its going to take a lot more than a special toter from PDC.
18 comments:
I still remember Ernie Taylor, the sweetest 9th grader whom I loved dearly and who got caught up in gangs (I think) and ended up dead within just a few years--and that was a good many years ago. He was either the first or one of the first of my students lost to violence. Recently, one of my former students is now to be tried for the death of another of my students--and neither of them were troublemakers in school.
I don't begin to know the answers because these problems are solved one child at a time. When I call for more discipline in the schools, I mean the kind of discipline that starts in kindergarten and makes the child grow into an adult with accountability added as he/she progresses through life.
I know it sounds simplistic, but I really believe that holding children accountable for their behaviors in school at early ages and in stages will bring about results. Of course, the same process must occur at home. District 150 has no control over whether or not that happens at home, but there is no reason to give up control of children when they are at school. Kids today have been given the false idea that they can either talk or bully their way out of every unpleasant situation. They have learned to pit adminisrators and teachers against each other because they know that administrators will take their side almost every time. Some on this blog will accuse me of lying, etc., but there were many, many times that I went to bat for children to keep them out of trouble with deans, etc. However, things changed and deans became advocates--to the total detriment of students and the schools.
Even if all that were made right, the streets have a pull to these young people for all kinds of reasons--but I believe the drug trade (a chance to earn money) is at the root of it. AND EVERYONE HAS TO REMEMBER THAT THE BUYERS ARE AS GUILTY AS THE SELLERS IN CREATING THIS ENVIRONMENT IN OUR CITIES.
I do, however, remember the day when some students were involved in street activities, but still came to school and obeyed the rules--school was a haven away from the streets for 5 hours a day.
But hey, we'll have a vibrant warehouse district....that's all that matters to the majority of the council.
... and the shootings continue. A person just showed up to St. Francis Hospital (7:30) shot in the chest and arm. Detectives had to locate the car that dropped the victim off. They are currently trying to find the location of the shooting.
7:50 - the crime scene has been located on S. Adams near the Stanley street turnaround.
8:12 - Howett Street a group of girls broke into a house and tore it up.
Until accountability starts at home, it's doubtful this is going away anytime soon.
When the parents of these kids put a boot in their butts when they even start to THINK about making bad choices, then the tide will turn. Many of these parents want to blame anybody but their kids which does nothing but make their kid feel UNTOUCHABLE. at least till a judge throws them in jail it they end to in the morgue. JFK said, ask not what the country can do for you, but whatYOU can do for your country...
I don't like taking either side in this argument, but when the reactions become totally heartless, then I cringe. Yes, we can blame parents for not making their children accountable, but the parents just plain aren't capable of doing what we expect. I do not have the answers; I guess no one does. I understand quite well how society got where it is; I just don't know to turn things around. However, all of those who believe it's all about pulling up your own bootstraps--and think you performed that miracle by yourselves, then there is no way you can understand some of the challenges faced by so many of these children and their parents.
We need to stand in complete awe of those young people who do rise above these environments of violence and anger--and we do need to help those who show any sign of having the kind of strength necessary to do so.
That said--back to the school's role--those who do not come in contact with the problems on a day to day basis (that would be the administrators on Wisconsin Avenue and maybe even building principals who found a way to escape the close up and personal contact with the problems) need to support those who are doing the heavylifting. Make no mistake, the teachers need support and encouragement if they are to cope with the problems they face every day.
Does anyone realize what Dr. Lathan has done to these teachers this year? Most primary and middle school teachers, and science and social studies high school teachers have been thrown new textbooks for which they were given absolutely no preparation time--thanks to the poor planning on the part of Dr. Lathan, who purchased all the books with no input from teachers. I know how difficult it is to prepare lessons, etc., with textbook changes--the proper way to do it is to give the teachers the books over the summer. Did any of you teachers see the books before their very, very late arrival after school started? What a major disservice to teachers!
We didn't get anything until AFTER the first few weeks of school. Now Wisconsin in "backpeddling" and trying to make us waste precious teaching time to take "in-services". Yes, our professional development this year has mainly been about catch-up. Worst year of my professional career, as far as curriculum planning and implementation. My stress level gets higher everyday. Even though an extra 1/2 hour was added to the day, it is STILL not enough time to teach everything this administration expects of us. They do not take into consideration the "fires" that teachers have to put out everyday and dealing with behaviors and late students and parents showing up unexpectedly at your door, besides central office administrators "strolling" through your classroom(we aren't suppose to even acknowledge them). I take home a couple of hours worth of work every night and fall into bed exhausted. My husband is a blue collar worker who makes more than me and does much less of what is expected of me. P.S. I'm tired...
"Worst year of my professional career, as far as curriculum planning and implementation."
These words are being spoken across the district by many, many of our teachers. Why are our teachers being punished for caring about the children of Peoria and for dedicating their lives to making the children's lives better?
Maybe some lesson plans NEEDED to be revised and updated after almost two decades of declining performance in the schools. Just sayn.....some teachers do as little as they can - most do all they can do to help students. Your contract forces personnel shifting on our children that hurt them as much, if not more, than poor administration.
District150 volunteer--you are really missing the point. If the curriculum needed to be updated and textbooks needed to be changed, three to five weeks into the new school year wasn't the time to do it--total chaos has been created because planning and ordering were done by central administrators alone and at the last minute.
D150 volunteer...although it sounds more like a NC transplant or former board member...it wasn't the teachers' contract that possessed Dr. Lathan to play the "let's see where we can put the principals we don't get along with to the worst places they would willing go" and then confused everybody with the transplanting of principals. Two of the principals that impacted were principals of buildings that made AYP this year.
Don't blame it on teacher contract...her smoke and mirrors plan of confusing our students seems to be working.
Emerge, I'm a Public Health RN and currently work at the Health Department in the WIC clinic. Every day, we see young women, pregnant at age 12, 13 and up. We see young women with 4 or 5 children (or more) by the time they're in their early 20's.
We encourage them to take care of their children...to take RESPONSIBILITY for those children, as well as for themselves.
We DO encourage them to work with their children. We DO encourage them to use some form of birth control and take responsibility for their own sexual health. We DO encourage them to further their education. We counsel, we advise, we refer.
Some are interested...engaged. Most aren't. They're only there for the WIC coupons...for what they can get for free and they're not a bit ashamed to admit that. Most feel that it's a huge imposition on their time to come and listen to us in order for them to receive their coupons.
Most of our advice and counseling falls on deaf ears...and we're all aware of that.
But we keep trying.
Pam, this is what happens when you have an "entitlement society"..... I really love it when people ask my WHY I only had one child. I look them straight in the eyes and tell them that one child is ALL my husband and I could afford. I would have LOVED to have 4 or 5 kids, but I have too much respect for myself AND my family to BEG for free stuff (not really free, the taxpayer's money). Teach these young girls to respect themselves FIRST.
I have always had a hard time believing that these young women with multiple children are truly satisfied with their lives on welfare. Please do not attack me by saying that I am defending their choices or the welfare system, in general. I am not. I think we have to delve much deeper to find out why these girls have made these choices--if we truly want to stop the cycle.
The truth is that I hate the welfare system, but for very different reasons. The welfare system is a great way to hold a whole class of people down--and I believe that is exactly why it was put in place and why it continues to exist. The poor do not have enough political clout to keep such a system going--for crying out loud, they do not even vote for the most part.
Yes, there are those who are labeled "liberals" whom most will blame for the continuation of the welfare system. And maybe that's true. Maybe the welfare system seems to many to be the only humanitarian thing to do at this point. However, there is no way for anyone to maintain any kind of healthy self-esteem if they are dependent on welfare. And lack of self-esteem is at the root of this whole problem--and black males suffer from it far more than do black females. I think we fool ourselves into believing that a feeling of "entitlement" is the emotion that best describes those on welfare. I have witnessed plenty of wealthier people who seem to feel entitled to all sorts of preferential treatment--and just as undeserved. We have all been taught to believe that, in this country, we are entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
So, Sharon, you're saying that people that work hard, save money, follows the rules, should NOT get preferential treatment? I beg to disagree with you. When people work hard for what they have and pay their bills on time, do they not get better rates on loans? Or, how about people that use credit cards in department stores, pay their bill on time and receive coupons or a "birthday" certificates as a gift? That is what this country was built on. Hard work pays off. What part of that does a young mother or black young man not understand?....that is what I read out of your comment. I tire of giving out freebies to people who do nothing but lay around, smoke dope, and have sex. BTW, I have seen PLENTY of that behavior in Peoria
Anon--I have paid my bills, followed the rules, worked hard--but I do not believe I deserve preferential treatment as a humanbeing--which is what I'm talking about.
I didn't mean to imply anything about "financial" entitlement. Quite honestly, I think my feelings about the "entitlement" argument have their basis in my Christian faith. I don't believe the Bible gives any of us the right to feel we are superior to any other human being--in God's sight. Maybe I fear the Biblical warning that "Pride comes before a fall."
Yes, I do disagree with the official actions of those in charge of District 150. I trust I am much more hesitant to attack them on a personal level--I am not superior to any of them on the human level. I know that I have sometimes teetered on the edge of imputing motives to those with whom I disagree--but I am wrong when I do so. I don't know anyone's heart--I can't judge their motives.
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